SEOUL— The election of Donald Trump has sparked a surge of interest in the United States in South Korea's 4B movement, a radical feminist crusade that preaches the four Bs: bi-hon (without marriage), bi-yeonae (without quotes), bisexual (without sex) and bi-chulsan (without childbirth).
Since November 5, there have been more than 500,000 Google searches for “4b movement,” while on TikTok, Instagram and X, support for the cause has been trending among young female voters who have vowed to renounce men.
“Ladies, we have to start looking at the 4B movement like women in South Korea and give America a severe drop in the birth rate,” it reads. a publication on X with more than 450,000 likes.
“We cannot allow these men to have the last laugh… we have to fight back”
“Let's remember that the 4B movement, and the separatist movement in general, is not just about avoiding men, but also about supporting and investing in women,” said another.
Here's what you should know about the movement and its impact on South Korea:
What is the 4B movement and when did it emerge?
While its exact origins or founder are unknown, scholars and activists agree that the 4B movement began in South Korea sometime after 2015, as part of a broader wave of radical feminism led by youth and popularized through online forums.
Its appearance coincided with several major developments that have spurred broader recognition of gender inequalities in the workplace and violence against women in South Korea.
One such incident was the murder of a young woman in a public toilet in Seoul's wealthy Gangnam district in 2016. The attacker, a 34-year-old man with a history of mental illness, later testified to police that he had stabbed the woman – who he didn't know – because women had rejected him in the past.
A woman enters a booth to cast her early vote for the presidential election at a local polling station in Seoul in March 2022.
(Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press)
The movement was further boosted by the arrival of the #MeToo movement in South Korea in 2018, the year that also saw massive public protests against the widespread circulation of non-consensual pornography.
“For women, love, dating, marriage, and childbirth were no longer perceived as havens of peace and security, but as places of exposure to male violence and subordination,” wrote feminist scholar Yoon-kim Ji-young. in 2020, describing the 4B movement. as “the complete breaking of any emotional, mental, financial or physical dependence on men.”
In recent years, some followers have expanded the move to a variant known as 6B, which also requires bi-sobi (do not consume products that promote misogyny or engage in sexist marketing) and bi-dop-bi — solidarity between single women.
Despite bursts of virality and media coverage, the movement is still far from popular and, given its decentralized online existence, there is no concrete data on how many South Korean women actively identify as “4B.”
One of the most common ways for followers to indicate their commitment is to share social media posts with 4B-related hashtags, such as investing tips for women's financial independence and photos depicting happy, single lives.
Some cities, including Daejeon and Gwangju, also have 4B-themed offline communities where fans can socialize through sports, book clubs or skill-building workshops.
Some feminist scholars and activists in South Korea have criticized these lifestyle-oriented aspects of the 4B movement, arguing that individual acts of opt-out ultimately do little to meaningfully advance women's sexual and reproductive rights in society in general. general. “At the heart of young women's commitment to 4B is a desire to focus on themselves,” feminist scholar Cho Joo-hyun wrote in 2020.
“The logical goal of this is to become a successful individual in neoliberal society.”
What is South Korea's position on gender equality?
By many gender equality metrics, South Korea lags behind much of the industrialized world.
The wage gap between men and women is bigger Among the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of rich countries, South Korean women earn on average a third less than their male counterparts. At the World Economic Forum 2023 Global Gender Gap Indexwhich measures gender parity in economic opportunities, education, health and political leadership in 146 countries, South Korea ranks 105th.
Disparities also remain stark at home. In households where both spouses work, women spend an average of 187 minutes a day on housework, while men spend just under a third of that (54 minutes), according to 2019 government data.
Violence against women has also been criticized as a long-neglected area. Dating violence has seen a sharp increase in the country of 51 million inhabitants, going from 49,225 cases reported in 2020 to 77,150 last year, according to police. Additionally, women in the country are victims of deepfake pornography at the highest rates in the world, according to an analysis of online content between July and August last year by US cybersecurity firm Security Hero.
In South Korea's last election, conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol's campaign was widely criticized for making misogynistic appeals to young voters; Yoon denied that structural sexism exists and promised to increase penalties for false rape accusations.
Has the 4B movement managed to reduce South Korea's birth rate?
Although claims There is talk on social media that the 4B movement is behind South Korea's terrible fertility rate, there is little evidence to support this.
South Korea's fertility rate (the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime) currently stands at 0.72, the lowest in the world and well below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population. Like most advanced economies, South Korea's fertility rate has been falling steadily since 1980. Researchers have attributed its first significant drop in 2001 – to “lower” levels of less than 1.3 – to shocks. of the labor market caused by the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
In more recent years, rising housing and parenting costs, as well as workplace pressures that force women to choose between motherhood and their careers, have further reduced the number.
And while it is true that young South Koreans are increasingly disillusioned with marriage in favor of single or childless lifestyles, these changes are not exclusive to women. Today, only 28% of South Korean women and 42% of men in their 20s see marriage as necessary, down from around 50% to 70% in 2008, according to government data.
